# "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps", young man! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 21, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174 "2022-04-21T14:53:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/1 "2022-04-21T14:53:21Z")
What the hey-hoo is a bootstrap? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/2 "2022-04-21T14:56:59Z")
Have you ever seen that loop at the top of the rear of the boot? That is a bootstrap. It is to help you pull on your boots. I found a fairly good pic of one: [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Dr_Martens%2C_black%2C_old.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Dr_Martens%2C_black%2C_old.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/3 "2022-04-21T15:11:40Z")
I have a pair kangaroo leather cowboy boots that I rarely wear. The last time I put them on, I asked my gf to help me. She told me to pull them on by my own bootstraps (haha) and I did. They have a loop on each side instead of the back. ---
**Author:** ![Stana\_Claus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stana_claus/32/13874_2.png) [@Stana\_Claus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stana_Claus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/4 "2022-04-21T15:17:47Z")
I don’t know if it’s universal, but in my experience lace up boots have a single strap in the rear while tall slip-on boots (like cowboy boots etc.) will have two loops inside, one on each side. Presumably, to give one more leverage to pull oneself up by. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/5 "2022-04-21T15:31:44Z")
Hey. If you pull yourself up, by bootstraps, wouldn’t you fall over? Twice(2 boots)? Seems counterintuitive to success. 🤭 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/6 "2022-04-21T15:36:52Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Hey. If you pull yourself up, by bootstraps, wouldn’t you fall over? Twice(2 boots)? Probably so. Physics gets in the way of so many good aphorisms. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/7 "2022-04-21T15:38:55Z")
From a Douglas Hofstadter column: “This analogy is like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.” ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/8 "2022-04-21T16:17:33Z")
Lean down, grab your bootstraps, and pull yourself into the air. Easy. Hence bootstrapping any system that in some sense already needs to be running in order to run. Examples being: The power grid, where generators need electrical power to energise their field coils before they can generate power. The problem usually being know as a _blackstart_. A computer. Where the operating system that runs the computer, including the code needed to access devices - such as a hard disk - resides on a hard disk. So how do you access the operating system on the disk to start it all off? Which is known as _bootstrapping_ a computer, or nowadays simply _booting_. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/9 "2022-04-21T16:27:32Z")
Interestingly, the meaning of the phrase shifted over the years-- it was originally meant to be sarcastic, meaning something impossible. Then it eventually came to be an encouragement to take charge and lift oneself out of dire or poor circumstances: > **[The Origins of the Phrase “Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps”](https://uselessetymology.com/2019/11/07/the-origins-of-the-phrase-pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps/)** > > The phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” originated shortly before the turn of the 20th century. It’s attributed to a late-1800s physics schoolbook that contained the exam… ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/10 "2022-04-21T16:47:05Z")
> [@solost](#): > > it was originally meant to be sarcastic, meaning something impossible Not merely sarcastic, but mocking. The mutation into something desirable and admirable is quite puzzling. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/11 "2022-04-21T16:52:49Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > The mutation into something desirable and admirable is quite puzzling. There are other similar examples of words, maybe not so much entire phrases, that changed meaning and in some cases took on the opposite meaning over time. Calling somebody ‘sophisticated’ used to be an insult, meaning something like deceptively cunning and manipulative. It gradually took on a much more positive connotation. Why, I’d say there’s literally a billion similar examples of words whose meaning has changed over time! ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/12 "2022-04-21T16:54:12Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Lean down, grab your bootstraps, and pull yourself into the air. Easy. If you pull hard enough you should be able to do a flip… ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/13 "2022-04-21T16:55:53Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > From a Douglas Hofstadter column: “This analogy is like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.” The idea predates Hofstadter. In 1941, Heinlein wrote [“By His Bootstraps.”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_His_Bootstraps) ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/14 "2022-04-21T19:43:47Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Calling somebody ‘sophisticated’ used to be an insult, meaning something like deceptively cunning and manipulative. It gradually took on a much more positive connotation. One that’s gone the other way is “condescending.” At one time it was a fairly neutral, or even positive, term, meaning that someone could put aside the privileges of their rank and treat their social inferiors with equality. In _Pride and Prejudice_, Jane Austen described a character as “all affability and condescension,” and meant it as a compliment. ---
**Author:** ![QMatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/aeb1de/32.png) [@QMatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QMatic)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/15 "2022-04-21T19:55:27Z")
To “boot up” a computer likely comes from this idea. A computer needs an operating system to enable it to load and run applications, but an operating system is itself just a program, so how does it load the operating system in the first place? It needs to pull itself up by its bootstraps. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/16 "2022-04-21T21:35:47Z")
When I was a kid (and the expression still had the “impossible” connotation), I always pictured someone with extremely long bootstraps, going up and over some sort of scaffolding or other framework, and then back down, so that the person wearing said boots could pull down on the straps, and so lift themself (with a factor of 2 mechanical advantage, even). I never understood why that was considered so impossible. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/17 "2022-04-21T22:32:24Z")
‘Man up’ kinda bothers me too. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/18 "2022-04-21T23:35:04Z")
If you ride English not only do your boots have bootstraps, but it’s very likely you own boot hooks and maybe even a boot jack. Those tall boots are a PITA. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/19 "2022-04-21T23:45:57Z")
But, I so want a crop. It has a loop.😉 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2022, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174/20 "2022-04-22T04:11:46Z")
Bootstrapping is itself a concept. in computing, but it refers to writing a compiler that can compile itself on that platform. Often it involves making a simpler compiler first. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-young-man/963174.md?page=2)